This past weekend, I got out with a group for some ski touring on Kings Peak. Started out on Saturday just before nine. Because of
the low snow level, had to park right on Highway 28 at an elevation of
280m and skin up from there. On a previous trip, I had driven up on a
rough road under the power lines and was unfamiliar with the route lower
down. We went around in circles for a bit, but eventually found our way
to the trailhead.
Going was cumbersome lower down, the path follows a hiking route and we were required to bootpack five short sections. Once we reached 740m, it became easier and more fun because we could keep our skis on and the snow was colder. It was precipitating all day but luckily, it didn't really start to dump until we were up above the freezing level.We filled up our water bottles at the waterfall at 950m and reached our planned camp spot at 1200m at just after 4pm.
After getting camp set up, we still had a couple hours of daylight, so I set off with one other to set our skin track to the alpine for the next day. This short section had given me route finding troubles on the last trip so I wanted to get it figured out early. Things went smoothly this time and we were up from the lower meadow area to the northwest ridge in no time. We quickly ascended to 1400m and had a nice ski back down to camp through some steep tree lines and good, freshly delivered powder.
The next day, we awoke to a bluebird sky. I set off with one other at 8am, eager to get up high and see the surrounding mountains. We were quickly rewarded with views of Crest Mountain and Big Den. Kings Peak and Queens Ridge looked pretty good as well. At 1500m, I stopped to do some stability tests and by the time I was done the rest of the party had arrived.
Everything looked pretty good to me snow wise, however we could see that a big slide (size 2-3) had ripped out recently over on the northeast aspect of Puzzle Mountain and there were some giant cornices on Queens Ridge overhanging the north aspect, so traversing under that was not possible. Therefore, we decided to try traversing around to the southwest side of Queens Ridge and see if we could make any progress there. Our effort allowed us to ascend to 1740m but there we were stopped. Continuing around the south side of Queens Ridge is to exposed for a winter ski trip.
After having some lunch we started our descent. The sun had really warmed the fresh snow from the day before and it was now skier triggerable. I got caught in another skiers sluff/slide and went for a very short ride. A reminder to never neglect safe group travel principles. Nevertheless, we still got some decent turns back to camp on a beautiful, sunny day.
We started down from camp around 2:30pm, were able to ski about half way, and then it became to difficult to ski and we had to boot pack. We returned to the vehicles, a tired bunch of nutters at just after 6pm.
Going was cumbersome lower down, the path follows a hiking route and we were required to bootpack five short sections. Once we reached 740m, it became easier and more fun because we could keep our skis on and the snow was colder. It was precipitating all day but luckily, it didn't really start to dump until we were up above the freezing level.We filled up our water bottles at the waterfall at 950m and reached our planned camp spot at 1200m at just after 4pm.
After getting camp set up, we still had a couple hours of daylight, so I set off with one other to set our skin track to the alpine for the next day. This short section had given me route finding troubles on the last trip so I wanted to get it figured out early. Things went smoothly this time and we were up from the lower meadow area to the northwest ridge in no time. We quickly ascended to 1400m and had a nice ski back down to camp through some steep tree lines and good, freshly delivered powder.
The next day, we awoke to a bluebird sky. I set off with one other at 8am, eager to get up high and see the surrounding mountains. We were quickly rewarded with views of Crest Mountain and Big Den. Kings Peak and Queens Ridge looked pretty good as well. At 1500m, I stopped to do some stability tests and by the time I was done the rest of the party had arrived.
Everything looked pretty good to me snow wise, however we could see that a big slide (size 2-3) had ripped out recently over on the northeast aspect of Puzzle Mountain and there were some giant cornices on Queens Ridge overhanging the north aspect, so traversing under that was not possible. Therefore, we decided to try traversing around to the southwest side of Queens Ridge and see if we could make any progress there. Our effort allowed us to ascend to 1740m but there we were stopped. Continuing around the south side of Queens Ridge is to exposed for a winter ski trip.
After having some lunch we started our descent. The sun had really warmed the fresh snow from the day before and it was now skier triggerable. I got caught in another skiers sluff/slide and went for a very short ride. A reminder to never neglect safe group travel principles. Nevertheless, we still got some decent turns back to camp on a beautiful, sunny day.
We started down from camp around 2:30pm, were able to ski about half way, and then it became to difficult to ski and we had to boot pack. We returned to the vehicles, a tired bunch of nutters at just after 6pm.
